No-knead whole wheat bread

Today, I made a loaf of wholewheat raisin+pecan bread. No kneading involved, just many hours required for the dough to rise (more than 18 hours).

I really wanted to like it. But the inside of the bread was a tad dense for my liking and I found the crust to be too tough. That I have two recent root canals done and teeth waiting to be ‘crowned’ might have had some effect.

There are many no-knead bread recipes on the internet that are either based on or adapted from Jim Lahey’s method that was featured in The New York Times. I made mine based on this recipe on Shutterbean and substituted the bread flour with wholewheat bread flour. I suspect that this is why the inside turned out to be rather dense. I also substituted pecans for walnuts, and used a mix of jumbo raisins and currents (also known as Corinthian raisins).

Anyway, this was an interesting baking experiment and didn’t take too much effort. The only ‘challenge’ was moving my Staub cast-iron pot in and out of my little oven without burning myself or dropping the pot on my feet.

Contrary to what I’ve read online, I didn’t wait for the loaf to cool before cutting a few slices, and smearing/melting butter and peanut butter onto them. I was hungry as I had only eaten a banana and a handful of M&Ms since I woke!

While munching on my freshly baked bread, I was looking through some photos that I took and realised that I had made some no-knead raisin milk buns in April! These were pretty tasty. Shame that I didn’t make a note of that recipe.

Believe it or not, I like kneading bread. I find it to be quite therapeutic and I love the smell of fermented yeast.

I have fond memories of kneading bread in the night while listening to music in our old apartment in Jurong. Unfortunately, the kitchenette in my current apartment in Brussels doesn’t have a similar workspace that would be suitable for kneading bread.

For my next place, a spacious kitchen with ample natural lighting is a must!